1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to laser projection systems, and, more specifically, to laser projection systems that reduce the appearance of speckle that may be visible in a laser projection image.
2. Technical Background
Speckle may result whenever a coherent light source is used to illuminate a rough surface, for example, a screen, wall, or any other object that produces a diffused reflection or transmission. Particularly, a multitude of small areas of the screen or other reflecting objects scatter light into a multitude of reflected beams with different points of origination and different propagation directions. Speckle causes high spatial frequency noise in the projected image. At an observation point, for example in the eyes of an observer or at the sensor of a camera, these beams interfere constructively to form a bright spot, or destructively to form a dark spot, producing a random granular intensity pattern known as speckle. Speckle may be characterized by grain size and contrast, usually defined as a ratio of standard deviation to mean light intensity in the observation plane. For a large enough illuminated area and a small enough individual scattering point size, the speckle will be “fully developed,” with a brightness standard deviation of 100%. If an image is formed on the screen using a coherent light source such as laser beams, such granular structure will represent noise or a serious degradation of the image quality. This noise presents a significant problem, particularly when the projector is used to display high spatial frequency content, such as text.
A general concept of minimizing speckle contrast in an image consists of projecting an intermediate scanned laser image over a small sized diffusing surface, and using projection optics to project that intermediate scanned laser image toward the final projection surface. By rapidly moving the diffuser, the phase of the electric field is scrambled over time, which results in changing the perceived speckle pattern. If the diffuser is moving or vibrating fast enough, the perceived speckle pattern changes at high frequencies and are averaged in time by the eye. To reduce speckle efficiently, multiple speckle frames need to be created over the integration time of the eye.
Although rapidly moving the diffuser provides speckle reduction, it requires expensive and complicated mechanisms to move the phase mask laterally at a relatively high speed. Further, a moving diffuser requires the use of the diffuser such as the auto-focus mechanisms as well as lenses possessing a high numerical aperture and a high field of view, which adds significant complexity and cost to the system.